To the AgricuUwal Society, irj 



a recent inftance of it in one of our neighbouring cities. I 

 ■ likewife perceived, that where a heap of flones or rails had 

 lain only one fummer feaibn, the foil where they had lain was 

 much enriched ; and recolleding the manner the earth was 

 prepared to make faltpetre, together with the fluctuating ftate 

 of vegetables, which will touch the fenfe of fmelling, and the 

 corpufcular effluviums that all bodies of manure will produce, 

 which are the parts that compofe vegetables, though the 

 fource from whence they flow are not fenfibly in bulk 

 diminifned; flmilar to fpirits when expofed to the air, or hay 

 too wet, do lofe their natural refined flirength and virtue. 

 To conclude, thefe effluviums fl:ill remain floating in the air, 

 or that they returned to the earth, without reafluming their 

 natural powers, carries with it fuch an inconfifl:ency, that it 

 is not w^orth while, at this enhghtened age, to advance one 

 fmgle argument to confute the idea. A number of other 

 reafons naturally turned to view, to confirm the opinion of 

 their exifl:ence in the air, which v/ould be unneceflTary to 

 offer them at this time, as Chancellor Livingfl;on, in his 

 obfervations, laid before this Society in the year 1792, has 

 taken up the fubjedl, and treated on it in a natural and 

 philofophical manner : any perfon that will candidly and 

 carefully perufe them, will have but little room left to doubt 

 of the facl. The only difficulty that remained was the manner 

 of coUeding them, fo that they might be rendered immediately 



